Yemisi Izuora
The management of Ikeja Electric, has appealed to all customers on her network to desist from meter bypass, vandalism or tampering of their meters as anyone caught will face the wrought of the law.
The company’s Head of Corporate Communication, Mr. Felix Ofulue, made the appeal when the leadership of the Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) led by its new Chairman, Olatunde Dodondawa, paid the Disco a courtesy visit at its Ikeja Office. He stressed that the company is committed to metering all the customers within her network as soon as possible.
According to Ofulue, the company has since launched concerted effort aimed at curbing unethical practices across its network and also encouraging customers to report such practices.
“Very soon, there will be massive prosecution of those that have tampered with meters, and we are going to step up on that because the rate at which people tamper with their meters is very high. We are not going to accept a situation where something is supplied and it is not paid for,” Ofulue stated.
Also, he explained that metering is one of the leading agenda of Ikeja Electric which will address complaints over estimated billing.
He noted that “With these meters, the customers can regulate the consumption of light, unlike the estimated billing or post-paid where they hardly notice their units. They can manage their own consumption and it makes them to pay for what they consumed. To the distribution companies, it releases the load on our equipment, and it also spreads the energy across to the other areas where demand is high and the Discos will collect revenue maximally without estimated billing.”
He, also condemned the increasing equipment vandalism within its operations, adding that it has forced the company to spend money meant for other electricity development projects on repairs.
He said that electricity materials, such as cables and wires, among others, had either been stolen or vandalised within its operations.
Ofulue called on the Energy editors to help in educating the masses on the challenges of the power sector and the need to for customers to pay their bills.
He maintained that a lot of electricity consumers in Nigeria are oblivious of the transition that has happened from public to private enterprise and as such do not see electricity as a commodity to be bought and paid for. They therefore devise multiple ways of engaging in electricity theft through meter tamper or outright bypass.
Ofulue said that he is hopeful at the new metering system that will soon start and urged the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to facilitate the on-going review of penalties charged for electricity theft as what is being charged now is not serving as deterrent to unruly customers.
In his own remarks, the new Chairman of NAEC, Mr. Olatunde Dodondawa, promised that the Energy editors and reporters will not relent in educating the masses on the power sector challenges.
He called on the Disco to make more investment on its network to ensure optimal power delivery.